T8-S Plus impressions

[Sorted]

Hi all. I had a unit to beta test, and whilst I understand hardware, it is my friend who knows Kodi.
Between the two of us, we hoped this little intro would help pay back for the privilidge of testing this new hardware!!!
Chris, I tried to find the T8-S Plus area to post this in, but couldn't. Any clues?

So, first things first... until Wookie Wizard modifies their main packs, then for ANDROID you've got to go with
ANDYS BUILD
It is off the last entry in the Wookie main menu, then the last option of that screen.
Too many niggles with both Retro and New Look. Each to their own, but for smooth android operation, ANDYS PACK was the way to go!

openELEC, nice, smooth, Apple TV pack (from Wookie's main menu) was, as ever, best in openELEC. I've added a few extra in there, as the pack is needing a refresh, but respect to DroidBOX and Chris when we went thirough this all, he traced down what was outdated. There is alovely add-ons' section here in the forum, grab it for suggestions with what to install.
I'm going to need to test if Acestream or P2P live streams work well in openELEC, but have focused on more mainstreams entries.

DRAFTing away right now, consider Work in progres.

 

[27mark]

is there any news of the pre ordered t8s plus being shipped out yet

 

[ChrisM]

Yes, they've arrived and are being shipped out this week. The earliest pre-orders will get dispatched first, then we'll be going through the rest. If we get too close to Christmas, see https://droidbox.co.uk/blog/circumvent-christmas-catastrophes/ (we'll be using expedited shipping after certain date, for free, to ensure everyone gets what they need in time).

ANDYS BUILD from the 3rd party section at Wookie seems to work well for the T8-S Plus, agreed with @Sorted , thanks for the post.

 

[jrmgolem]

Chuffed to NAAFI breaks, mine turned up this morning!!!

 

[ChrisM]

Sorry about that, accidentally locked this thread a few hours ago, just meant to make it a sticky. Apologies to anyone who tried to respond here.

 

[Milamber]

Chuffed to NAAFI breaks, mine turned up this morning!!!

Long long time since I heard, or read, this expression. Thanks for the memories.

 

[PVM]

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have my T8-S Plus but cannot add google account, no problem setting up wifi but goes to blue screen and says checking info but nothing further happens. Have done a factory reset to no avail. Please help

 

[ChrisM]

@Peter Millroy We've an update coming out this evening hopefully. It will be accessed via the OTA Updates application on your device. Sorry for the inconvenience. Once the update is installed, adding a Google account and the Play Store itself will work smoothly.

 

[Claireypie]

Has this update been released yet? I am not seeing any available updates in OTA Updates. It says "this rom has not had any released versions yet"

I have cleared the cache/data etc for the Google app but still getting the "checking info" screen in any Google app.

 

[Aromaticmist]

Same issue as me Claire

 

[Milamber]

Mine arrived about an hour ago, with the same issue and also reverting to an Asian Language and dropping the network. The OTA Update does not work!! So far, not impressed!! Regards.

 

[Milamber]

To continue, I have done a Factory Reset and was able to download the Wookie and get a couple of movies showing OK. It has an alternative skin from the standard Confluence, so I cannot get back to the Android Section and, before switching to Openelec, I was still not able to enter my Google ID. No updates are appearing when looking in the OTA Update section. Reports "No Update Available". Regards.

 

[taste3171]

Upgraded to the Plus from a faithful X7 that has delivered valiant service for around 3 years. Feels like I've gone from a Fiat to a Ferrari. Very impressed with build quality and performance , highly recommended ! If I have understood correctly with the Plus featuring the latest Amlogic S812 coding it even addresses AV forum's Mark Hodgkinson's only real gripe he had with the T8 S in his review. This feels to me like the culmination of all of Droidboxes experience and know-how with android boxes over the years and is the best yet for ease of use !

 

[8bitDev]

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have my T8-S Plus but cannot add google account, no problem setting up wifi but goes to blue screen and says checking info but nothing further happens. Have done a factory reset to no avail. Please help

Hi

Please run OTA updater and update your box.

If you are having ethernet cable conencted,please either use wifi for update or in top right corner options tick off wifi so download could start.

After downloading and applying of new ROM is done reboot is required.

If google play store still does not work that simply means that update was not applied fully so you can do factory reset and once that is done update will work in its best and google play store will work.

Regards

 

[dwinger]

What is the point in openelec I have had a t8s plus since their launch last December and I have never used the openelec so could someone please tell me what am I missing out on

 

[27mark]

I prefer to use openelec because there is nothing going on in the background to interfere with the video streaming.
If you check kodi system info in android and openelec you will see memory usage a lot lower in openelec.
Imo having more ram available helps with buffering especially with hd

 

[ChrisM]

Not much to add to the above...

In the past I've compared it to driving two different cars in two locations...

Driving round town (normal 720/1080 video viewing), it won't matter that much if you've a standard Ford Mondeo fully loaded with family, bass bins in the boot, air conditioning on, the greater performance available from a tuned, all spare weight removed Mondeo won't alter journey times when speeds are low.

Now take the same two cars to a race track (4K movie in 3D with surround sound and a very high bitrate, not likely to find much like that for a few years). The sportier Mondeo has an opportunity to show its full potential there.

openELEC = stripping all non-essentials from an operating system, all resources used for media viewing
Android = comfortable car, millions of accessories, cup holders, hifi, but with the extra weight, when on a track it isn't as fast.

 

[dwinger]

I own a t8s plus I would like to know what openelec is good for

 

[ChrisM]

With the plug and it's larger storage compared to some, some customers use openELEC for one pack/build and Android's Kodi or DBMC for another one or two.
Same as my last post here in terms of resources... openELEC frees up more RAM and CPU time as there aren't lots of other background processes, compared to Android.
I've not actually timed it, but you may also find booting up openELEC and using an add-on takes less time compared to booting up Android, opening Kodi etc.